the relationship between serum dehydroepiandrosterone concentration and memory function in the elderly

Background: world population is rapidly aging, and the elderly are most at risk of cognitive impairment. dehydroepiandrosterone (dhea) and dhea-sulfate (dheas) have an essential effect on neuroprotection and might effectively improve cognition and memory. objectives: this study aimed to investigate the relationship between the level of dhea and memory function in the elderly. materials & methods: the present study was a cross-sectional analytical study, and the study population included the elderly (age 60 years and older) living in rasht city, the north of iran, in 2020. the participants completed a demographic questionnaire and wechsler memory scale (wms), and their serum dhea levels were measured by the hormonal automation method. the data were analyzed by spss v. 23, using t-test, the one-way analysis of variance (anova), pearson and spearman correlation coefficient. results: the participants included 100 older people (57 females and 43 males) with a mean±sd age of 67.38±5.39 years. there was no correlation between serum dhea concentrations with a total score of the wms (r=0.117, p=0.247). however, the correlation between the dhea level and the scores of personal and current information and visual reproduction subscales were statistically significant (r=0.219, p=0.029; r=0.206, p=0.04). conclusion: the study indicates that the total memory score was not associated with the level of serum dhea.